What Was Never Thought to Be
by Katarina Radiance
Summary: The Trio are back for their 7th year at Hogworts. Soone they notice an unlikely change in Draco Malfoy. He calims he wants to work our their differences. Will Harry allow him to get close to Hermione when he realizes what he now feels for her???
1. Default Chapter

****

Chapter 1

Train Ride Back to Hogworts

Harry and Ron sat in one of the last compartments waiting for their friend, Hermione to join them. They had decided to arrive early to make sure that they got one for themselves. Their fifth year they had to group up with the strangest girl, and since then they've gone out of their way to make sure it didn't happen again.

Outside the window, that they were empty-mindedly starring out, were kids of all ages saying good-bye to their family. Harry was able to spot Ginny saying farewell to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley; who were also Ron's parents. The Weasley's were a wonderful family, and he often considered them more of his family than his aunt and uncle…whom he lived with.

Through the crowed Harry spotted a young girl, most likely his and Ron's age. She had brown hair and amazing brown eyes…which stood out from where he was sitting at least 15 feet away. After a while he lost her in the crowed as it continued to grow. It was getting closer to 11:00, and he was excited to start his 7th and final year of Hogworts!

Harry and his two best friends had been through A LOT in their past 6 years of going to Hogworts. He knew that he was no sooner going to forget any of it…even the bad times.

As he was thinking about this, the compartment door slowly slid open and head slipped through. It was the girl that Harry had noticed earlier in the crowd. Now that she was closer, he realized that it was Hermione. He silently cursed himself for not noticing sooner…but he could understand why he hadn't. Over the summer Hermione had changed so much. She had finally gotten taller, and her hair…looked…well like hair but much more manageable than it had ever been. For some reason, it seemed to fit personality better: smart, thoughtful, quiet and careful…oh…and did he mention smart?

Hermione opened the door the rest of the way and stepped in. She carefully closed the door, turned around and smiled at her two best friends. Harry smiled back at her and glanced at Ron. To his surprise, he wasn't smiling at Hermione…but gapping at her opened mouthed. Harry couldn't help but laugh silently.

"It's nice to see you too Ron," Hermione said half laughing.

Ron quickly closed his mouth and tried his best to find something else in the empty compartment to look at. "Sorry, it's just that I didn't recognize you, that's all."

She sat down on the same bench as Harry, propping her feet up on the bench that Ron was sitting on. "So how was your summer you two? I hope they were both well."

Harry rolled his eyes, "Uneventful…at least until I was able to escape to Ron's house at the end of the summer."

"Likewise," Ron added. "The house is kind of empty what with Bill, Charlie and Percy all moved out and the long hours father is usually working. Ginny pretty much just stays in her room doing I'm not sure what. It was too bad that you weren't able to come down when Harry came down at the end of the summer. We would have had a blast!"

"I agree, but I just couldn't. I was visiting family that I haven't seen in years…" Hermione apologized.

At that time, the clock struck 11:00 and the train was on its way it Hogworts!

All through the long journey, the three talked about their summer, past years at Hogworts, and how they were sad that this would be their last. They were going to really missing seeing so much of each other once this year was over…but they decided not to think about that now. Why dwell on something now, and not enjoy the time that you have left together?

********

Finally, the train arrived at the station, and all the students quickly got off, excited to start a new year. Harry, Ron and Hermione grabbed their things and walked off with the rest of the students, making their way towards the carriages. All three were able to get a carriage to themselves and enjoyed the ride in the cool night air up to the castle.

The closer that they got, the faster Harry's heart started to beat. He was so glad to be back. Hogworts was so comfortable for him. There was no other place he would rather be, other than perhaps the Weasley's house. Here, he always knew that he was safe because Dumbledore was the school headmaster.

The carriage stopped, and they made their way through the huge doors into the Great Hall and took their seats at the Griffindor table. Everyone in the Great Hall talked quietly, while they waited for the Sorting Ceremony to start.

********

Once the Ceremony was finished, the students headed towards their dormitories.

For some reason this year, the first meal (which Harry has always found himself looking forward to) seemed kind of different. Part of it could have been because all though it, he had something on his mind. He wasn't for sure what it was…but it was definitely nagging at him.

The three friends headed out of the Great Hall, not talking much since they were tired from their long journey, not to mention full from dinner. As usual, Harry was in the middle with Ron to his left and Hermione to his right. Quite out of the blue, Harry spotted the one person that could really ruin is night. 

"Malfoy…what do you want?" Harry couldn't help but let escape in a disgusted tone of voice.

"Potter…" Malfoy said mocking Harry with his usual smirk on his face. "I just _had_ to make sure if that was Miss Granger here. At first I didn't think it could possibly be her, but then I thought…who else would be with you two?."

Hermione stiffened at his odd words, and was now standing next to Harry with her arms crossed, glaring at Malfoy.

"Why would you care if it was me or not, Malfoy?" She said quietly but with an edge to her voice.

"Oh…well…I guess because I had hoped that we could finally work out our differences…what with this being our last year at Hogworts and all," Malfoy said with a shy look on his face.

"Key word…hope," Harry said not being able to help himself.

"Excuse me, Potter?"

"Not only are you a pure blood, but are you deaf too? Or does selective hearing just run in that horrible family or yours? Don't tell me that you _actually_ didn't hear me." Harry said now taking a step forward.

Malfoy's eyes grew wide, looking from Harry, to Ron, to Hermione, then back to Harry again. He was trying his best to think of something to say back to them, but wasn't having much luck.

"Maybe it would be best if you continued off to your dorm," Harry said, half-laughing. "It's past your bedtime … and this is obviously effecting your ability to think."

Malfoy put on his best glare then turned on his heal and stomped off in the direction of the Slytherin Dormitories.

********

__

Shit! Malfoy thought. _I hadn't planned to totally embarrass myself in front of those three. Maybe starting off slightly rude… isn't the way to show them that I've changed. _He slapped himself on the forehead. _Hermione had looked great. Her hair…wow, and those brown eyes. She looked amazing. _He shook his head to help clear this thoughts. _Why have I changed? I used to get sick at the thought of her because she's a mudblood. Oh…if my father only knew what I thought of Hermione Granger…a mudblood…now._

********

Malfoy couldn't exactly explain why, but his opinion of Hermione, and all mudbloods for that matter, had changed. It started at the beginning of the summer. Several nights a week he would wake up from a strange dream involving Hermione. From there it progressed… Finally, by the end of the summer, Malfoy would occasionally catch himself thinking how nice it would be to _be _with Hermione. _She really isn't a bad person at all_. That is when he decided…_hell…why not see what happens? And while I'm at it, I can prove to that Potter that not everything is under his control._

********

"Well wasn't that weird?" Ron said as he and the other two made their way to their dorm yet again.

"Yeah, especially when he was rambling on about Hermione like that. You don't suppose he was serious when he said he wanted to work the differences between us?" questioned Harry.

Ron sighed, "Who knows…"

Hermione didn't say a thing as the boys continued to talk. She was deep in thought about what happened down in the Great Hall. _Should I feel weird about the fact that Malfoy wanted to know if it was me? Usually he could care less if I was alive? Why the sudden change? Maybe he really was tired from the train ride here. If he was serious about the whole differences thing…then it sure would be nice. At least then he wouldn't be breaking out in fistfights with Harry or Ron anymore…_

************************************************************************

Just to let everyone know…this is my first…if you couldn't tell otherwise! *eek* I know…I know…I suck…LOL. But help me out! Tell me what you think of my first chapter by reviewing. I would LOVE to hear your ideas and comments!

Katarina


	2. Steeling Glances

Sorry everyone, I realized that in my first chapter I didn't have my disclaimer. OOPS! Here it is!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything Harry Potter like. All I have is the plot (which is nothing compared to what she comes up with)! I am not selling this, and am most definitely not making any money off of it…so please don't hurt me! All I ask is that you try bare with me as I attempt to write as good as the amazing J.K. Rowling!

I'd like to thank Dark Angel and Mary Elizzy for their reviews! Thanks guys, they've really given me some confidence to continue to write! I absolutely didn't expect to get a single review so they really mean a lot! I know that is pretty korny, but I'm serious! :)

Oh, and of course I'll email you Dark Angel to let you know that I've updated. If there is anyone else that would like me to email them about my updates, just let me know. I would be happy to!

NOW LETS GET TO THE SECOND CHAPTER!

****

Chapter 2

Steeling Glances

Hermione woke up slowly the following morning to a bright and sunny day. She carefully rubbed her tired eyes and somehow managed to make herself get out of the bed. _Hey, it could be worse…it could be raining on the first day of classes_, she thought_. _As she padded over to her trunk to pick out something to wear, she remembered Draco's odd behavior the night before. A shiver ran through her body as she also remembered the fact that he was in a way looking for her.

She finished picking out what she needed and quietly made her way to the showers, trying her best not to wake the girls around her.

********

About a half an hour later, Hermione was down stairs quietly reading her new Defense Against the Dark Arts book; trying to get in as much as she could before class started. A few more minutes later, she heard Harry and Ron making their way down the stairs. She looked up seeing them and couldn't help but laugh to herself as she saw that Harry's hair was sticking up on one side. _Hmmm…someone must have slept like a rock, _she thought.

Hermione put her book away and the three of them made their way out of the Griffindor common room and down to the Great Hall to have breakfast.

The Great Hall was very bright making Hermione feel that the day would have to be good. Looking towards the magical ceiling, she saw that there were tiny, white, puffy clouds all surrounding the sun high in the sky.

Harry, Ron and Hermione all took their seats near the end of the Griffindor table. Ron, immediately after sitting down, started filling his plate high with eggs, bacon, and sausage, then grabbing toast and applying butter to it. Hermione looked at Ron with a disgusted face, "You're going to make yourself sick before you even get to class!"

"Naa….," he managed to get out before he stuffed another spoonful of eggs in his mouth.

Hermione, feeling that there really wasn't anything she could say or do that would change his mind otherwise, reached for a slice of toast for herself. She then looked around the table for some butter to put on her toast…then realized that Ron had taken the last of hit. _Errr…_

While eating her toast and looking at her schedule for the day, she suddenly felt like someone was watching her. She looked up and down the Griffindor table; no one seemed to be acting out of place. Then, not sure why, she glanced over to the Slytherin table. Malfoy was looking directly at her, with absolutely no emotion showing on his face at all. They looked at each other for only a few seconds before they both ducked down trying to hide themselves.

"Hermione? What are you doing?" Harry asked with an eyebrow up as if going 'huh???'.

"Hmmm?" Hermione said softly while turning her head back towards her friend.

Harry looked at her for a few moments, searching her face, then turned towards the Slytherin table. _Was she looking at Draco? Even if she was…why is she acting like she's hiding something? _He smiled, shaking his head. _I'm over reacting…calm down._

Suddenly something hit Harry…_why does Hermione talking to Draco, or even looking at him bother me so much?_ _It's not like she hasn't done it before in the past 6 years._

He looked at Draco again, not sure what he hoped to see, but he noticed that again he was looking in his general direction. Without even thinking about it, he looked next to him where Hermione was…now staring right at Draco. Both of them had a sort of blank look on their faces.

"We'd better get going…we don't want to be late to our first Potions class," said a voice Harry didn't recognize right away. "I think Snape would enjoy giving us detention too much."

"Huh?" Harry finally muttered coming out of the trans he was in while looking at Hermione.

"Potions…Snape…Hogworts…come on Harry…WAKE UP! Do I dare ask what you were thinking about?"

"Oh…uhh…sorry."

Harry quickly grabbed his books and noticed that Hermione was finally doing the same…now that she wasn't looking at Draco anymore. They made their way down the dark corridors in the direction of the dungeons for their Potions class.

********

There was an obvious change in the temperature down in the dungeons. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were standing in a small huddle outside the door of Snape's classroom. He hadn't arrived yet, and none of the students were about to unlock the door with their wands and walk in. Doing something like that would just be plain stupid…especially with Snape's door.

Several minutes went by and still there was no sign of Snape. The three had resorted to talking about what might be keeping Snape. They couldn't really remember a time that he was _this _late to his own class.

"Maybe Dumbledore has finally came to his senses and fired him," Ron said hopefully.

"I think it's highly unlikely that Dumbledore would fire a teacher now…after all these years of trusting him. And besides, he was at dinner last night," Hermione said with her head up high.

"Did anyone see him at breakfast this morning…I didn't even look," Said Harry after a while.

After a few more minutes of just standing there, Draco comes up to them. Harry looked up from his feet to stare at something that he hoped would be more interesting…like the wall. As he did, the saw Draco.

"Good morning," Draco said with a nervous look n his face.

"Uh…good morning to you too, Malfoy," Hermione said quickly with a little smile on her face.

"Can we help you? Or have you come back to make a fool of yourself like you did last night?" Ron said quite rudely.

"No…I uh…just…uh…" was all that he was able to get out.

"You…_uh_…just _uh_?" Harry said in his mocking voice.

Hermione looked at them both, "Stop…"

At about that time, Snape came practically _running_ right between Draco and the other three in his haste to get to his door and unlock it. The four took one last look at everyone else and turned to walk into the classroom and take their seats before Snape yelled at them to do so.

"I'm going to apologize, although I don't believe I have to, for my tardiness to class. I was needed in a small emergency meeting. It seems that we have a spider problem in our castle, and the other teachers have asked me to make a potion to drive them away."

"_S-spiders???_" Ron choked out.

Snape glared at Ron for speaking out of turn. "Ron, is there something that you would like to share with the rest of the class?" he sneered.

By that time, Ron was about the color of a strawberry… _Gulp…_ "No sir, sorry."

"Alright then, moving on. Seeing as you are all 7th years, I believe that none of you _should_ have a problem in making the simple potion needed. The directions are on the board, and all of the ingredients can be found on the table at the front of the room. I want all of you to be finished by the end of class. Get started."

Hermione somehow managed to get stuck with Ron, who was now so worried about the spider problem, wasn't much help at all.

"Ron…come on…pay attention! You were about to add too much snake skin!"

"S-sorry," he said while brushing off his arm like something was crawling up it.

Hermione sighed loudly and glanced around the room seeing how far along everyone else had gotten so far. Once she reached Draco, he looked up right at her. Both of them stood dead still for a few minutes, looking into each other's eyes. Hermione could feel heat running through her body, starting from her stomach and she suddenly felt nervous. With that, she looked down quickly at her feet, hiding how she felt, then back up into his eyes again. He smiled at her…

__

Oh my god! Did he just smile at me? I don't think I've ever seen him smile… unless he thinking about something horrible he's about to do! Even then, it's not really a smile…but more of a …smirk.

She gathered her courage and made herself look at him again. He was still watching her, but with a nervous look on his face now. _Awww… _She couldn't help herself…she had to smile at him. It was so neat his reaction to something as small as a smile. He broke into a wide grin showing his unusually white teeth against his pale skin. His reaction made her giggle out loud quietly.

Harry heard Hermione at the table to his right giggling. It was not like her to be laughing in class; she's so serious about her grades. He looked over at her and saw her laughing softly, looking down to the ground, then back up to…_who…DRACO???_

********

It seemed like the end of class would never come. The potion that Snape had everyone working on really wasn't that hard, but Ron still wasn't being of much help. He spent most of his time looking around the classroom walls and under the tables and chairs for spiders. Occasionally he would get this deathly look on his face and stare at his arm while (once again) smacking at it trying to kill…well nothing at all.

Snape dismissed the class and Ron grabbed his things and ran from the room. Harry followed close behind him laughing out loud about the way Ron was acting. "Catch you later, Hermione!"

Hermione slowly picked up her things and was one of the last to leave the classroom. She was about all the way out of the dungeons when she heard someone call her name behind her. Turning around, she saw Draco jogging up to her.

"Hey…" he said.

"Hi."

For a few minutes, they had a very friendly conversation about Potions class, and what Snape had them doing. Hermione never really noticed it before, but Draco was a very bright guy…if he let it be known.

They were about to the Great Hall when he suddenly stopped. Hermione stopped too, and turned around with a puzzled face, looking to see why he had quit walking.

"I'd like to say I'm sorry for acting so differently last night after dinner. I'm sure I really freaked you, Harry and Ron out."

"Oh, that's alright," she said kind of smiling and not really sure what to say.

"If it's any consolation, I meant what I said…when I said that I wanted to overcome our differences. And if at all possible…become friends."

Hermione didn't know what to think…she couldn't think. _He must really mean this to be saying this again, it really isn't like him otherwise. _She looked up from the ground, first seeing his mouth and his bottom lip that he was chewing on slightly. Then she looked up into his eyes, to see if maybe she would tell if what he was saying was true and that he really meant it. That is when she saw the _vast hunger_ in his eyes…for her.

****************************************************************************

Hey guys, I hope you like it…because I really enjoyed writing it! Let me know what you think please! I'll do my best to update as fast as I am humanly possible…promise! :)


End file.
